Page 138 - middlemarch

whose brothers, she felt sure, it would have been possible
for her to be more interested in, than in these inevitable
Middlemarch companions. But she would not have chosen
to mention her wish to her father; and he, for his part, was
in no hurry on the subject. An alderman about to be mayor
must by-and-by enlarge his dinner-parties, but at present
there were plenty of guests at his well-spread table.
That table often remained covered with the relics of the
family breakfast long after Mr. Vincy had gone with his
second son to the warehouse, and when Miss Morgan was
already far on in morning lessons with the younger girls in
the schoolroom. It awaited the family laggard, who found
any sort of inconvenience (to others) less disagreeable
than getting up when he was called. This was the case one
morning of the October in which we have lately seen Mr.
Casaubon visiting the Grange; and though the room was
a little overheated with the fire, which had sent the span-
iel panting to a remote corner, Rosamond, for some reason,
continued to sit at her embroidery longer than usual, now
and then giving herself a little shake, and laying her work
on her knee to contemplate it with an air of hesitating wea-
riness. Her mamma, who had returned from an excursion
to the kitchen, sat on the other side of the small work-table
with an air of more entire placidity, until, the clock again
giving notice that it was going to strike, she looked up from
the lace-mending which was occupying her plump fingers
and rang the bell.
‘Knock at Mr. Fred’s door again, Pritchard, and tell him
it has struck half-past ten.’

1